Truth be told, they don’t really teach you about retirement in school. Unless you elected to attend some personal finance class, you probably hadn’t even heard about IRAs except by some other means; school was spent learning about history and chemistry and math, but never about the math of retirement. Even if you did learn about IRAs, it’s probably a stretch to say that you learned a great deal about Self Directed IRAs and the nearly unlimited options they give you in investing for retirement.

We’re here to change all that. Obviously, you can’t re-live your school days, but you can make up for lost time by learning about Self Directed IRAs in the here and now—specifically, you can read more about what we have to say about these retirement accounts that school declined to teach:

Self Directed IRAs are Easy to Manage

If you encountered the term “Self Directed IRAs” at any point, you probably thought of them as the kind of option that only serious investors would want to consider. Why? Because people who don’t know about all of the freedoms associated with this type of IRA don’t realize just how simple they can be. In fact, many people dismiss the idea of directing their own retirement account out of hand because they haven’t given thought to that kind of intensive management in their own affairs.

But “intensive management” is a stretch. Your Self-Directed retirement account can include an investment in real estate, for example, featuring a property manager who handles the rent collection for you. Does that sound very difficult to manage, relative to other types of real estate investments? We didn’t think so, either.

You Can Invest in a Lot of Different Asset Types

When you learn about IRAs—even if it’s part of a personal finance class—you probably don’t learn much about the options available to you. In fact, you might say it’s the number one objection many people bring up when reacting to the concept of self-directing their own IRA. They figure, “Well, I can only invest in stocks and bonds, and I’d rather not invest in that kind of thing.” They think they’re not good enough at beating the stock market.

It’s a good thought—the stock market is in fact hard to beat—but what people are missing is the fact that there are all sorts of asset types you can invest in when investing for retirement. The IRS allows you plenty of leeway, including investing in real estate, precious metals, and even private companies with an IRA. The simply change you need to make is that you need to direct your own retirement account to make this happen.

“Diversification” Isn’t Just a Word

When you learn the basics of investing in a class, you’re likely to encounter this word “diversification.” It usually means, in the mainstream at least, that you should invest in both stocks and bonds, including all sorts of different stocks in order to protect yourself.

But what happens when the stock market tanks?

The stock market is a consistent source of long-term wealth, to be sure, but it’s far from perfect. It has ups and downs just like any other investment vehicle. If you truly want diversification, you should considering adding other asset classes, including precious metals, to your retirement portfolio.

If you’re interested in learning more beyond the most basic look at Self Directed IRAs, keep reading our work here at AmericanIRA.com or call us at 828-257-4949. You’ll be amazed at what you didn’t learn in school—and sometimes learning what you didn’t learn can make a big difference.

When you look at today’s stock market prices, it’s tempting to want to call it an emergency and sell off. After all, a tumultuous stock market means that people turn to other ways to preserve their retirement. Two of the most powerful tools in their arsenal? Gold, silver, and the Self Directed IRA.

Precious metals have a long history as a “hedge” against the stock market crashing and inflationary prices, but do the facts really stand up to that history? And is a Self Directed IRA the best vehicle for those precious metals?

Here we’ll take a look at those very questions and come up with hard answers. Let’s examine the history of gold and silver as safe retirement vehicles that might serve you in your Self Directed IRA:

Gold: A Popular Tool in the Self Directed IRA

First, let’s look at the idea that gold and silver can help you protect your wealth in the case of economic emergency. There are typically a few arguments you’ll hear from people who invest in gold and silver:

Precious metals tend to hold their value over time, which serves as a hedge against unstable monetary policies and inflation.

Gold and silver are the last bastion of monetary value in a true economic emergency.

Since it’s difficult to acquire gold and silver, their prices tend to be relatively stable, which can’t be said of fiat currencies.

In the case of the first point—that precious metals tend to hold their value over time—it’s true. Measuring the value of gold and silver in today’s prices actually gives you a fairly accurate look at the value of money in the past. Some people have even taken a look at Shakespeare’s finances and made sense of it by calculating his income in the cost of today’s silver.

But that’s an extremely long-term view of precious metals; just because they hold their value over centuries doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll hold their value over decades, does it? The average Self Directed IRA is hoping that the value will hold stable and increase for decades, after all. The problem here is that there isn’t much history to work off of. The price of gold was fixed until the United States abandoned the gold standard in 1971, when President Nixon ordered that gold no longer be convertible directly to U.S. dollars. Gold prices spiked in the late 1970s and again in the early 2010s, but they’ve never reverted as low as these original prices.

Owning Precious Metals in Your Self Directed IRA

Whether you want to own a relatively large percentage of your portfolio in gold and silver generally depends on your outlook on the economy. Precious metals has seen spikes after periods of economic hardship, but there’s no direct causal relationship between falling stock prices and the price of precious commodities. What’s important to remember, however, is that gold and silver’s “fixed” status—they’re difficult to mine—means that the supply remains stable. And with a stable supply comes relatively stable prices.

As gold is priced in U.S. dollars, your investments in precious metals in a Self Directed IRA will also depend on how much you value a diversified portfolio. When you hold all of your assets in a single currency, some investors aren’t comfortable. Once again, it depends on your outlook. But if you’d like to learn more about owning gold and silver as a stable portion of your retirement portfolio, be sure to contact us at AmericanIRA.com by calling 828-257-4949 or continuing to read our website. You’ll learn more about these investment opportunities as well as the other retirement investment vehicles available to you when you direct your own IRA.

If you want your retirement portfolio to look like anything besides owning a single stock, then you know there’s one very important principle for you to grasp: diversification. You’ve seen it over and over—in trade magazines, in your investment newsletter, and even here at AmericanIRA.com. But what does diversification really mean, and how can Self Directed IRAs lead you there?

That’s what we’ll explore today as we look at some of the traditional retirement investments people make…as well as some of the other options you have available to you including Self Directed IRAs. Remember: if you have a retirement to plan, there are countless options for you to retire with security and peace of mind. You just have to have a combination of knowledge and action. Let’s start with some of that knowledge right now:

Self Directed IRAs Allow for More Diversity of Retirement Investments

When most people think about retirement investments, they think of just one thing: the stock market. They watch the S&P and hope that the stock market will go up; after all, that’s where they have all of their money. They’ve been told over and over again that the stock market produces the best returns possible, so they’re counting on that fact to bear out in reality.

What’s the truth of the situation? The truth is, stocks are a good investment…but that’s not particularly insightful. Just about everyone knows that. That’s why people use Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, and the like to invest in funds that track the stock market. They want a piece of the action. The problem? This can sometimes feel like putting all of your eggs in one basket. True diversification and a truly well-rounded portfolio will include stocks, bonds, and funds, yes…but there’s more to the story that needs to be told if you’re going to build a retirement portfolio that can stand the test of time.

Learning Alternatives and What They Can Do

If you want to round out your portfolio, you’ll invest in more than just stocks. That’s the simple truth behind diversification. It helps protect your money from the instability of the ebbs and flows of the stock market while creating more opportunities for growth in other sectors.

Consider just a few of the options you can use when you invest with Self Directed IRAs:

Real estate. Real estate is one of the world’s most powerful investments because it allows you to use leverage to create a lot of value and profit potential for yourself. In a Self-Directed IRA, you can utilize non-recourse loans to make real estate purchase you otherwise wouldn’t be able to make.

Precious metals. Precious metals are valuable because they serve as an alternate store of worth and value when you don’t want all of your money anywhere else, especially in turbulent economic times. They’re a “hedge against worry.”

Private investments like private stock in companies are important, because they allow you to save for retirement without exposing your money to the public stock market.

Private IRA lending is another way to seek out an investment without feeling like you’re exposing your money to different sectors that might be unstable. It also allows you to find the investments that suit your own personality and experience.

True diversification is achieved when you round out your portfolio and seek out alternative investments to supplement your mainstream investments. Continue reading us here at AmericanIRA.com to learn about Self Directed IRAs and call us at 828-257-4949 if you want to get in touch with us. We’ll be glad to talk about what a retirement portfolio can look like when you use self-direction.

One of the chief fears people have about Self Directed IRAs is that they’re afraid that they’re going to make mistakes. But mistakes are a part of life.

In fact, mistakes are part of just about every investment strategy: it’s your ability to prevent and adjust to mistakes that defines your success. That’s why it’s important to know how to minimize mistakes and learn from them the best you can: after all, when you work towards a better financial future, there will be turbulence even on the most peaceful rides. Here’s how to avoid and deal with common mistakes in Self Directed IRAs:

#1: Do your Self Directed IRAs research.

One of the fastest ways to ensure that you make a mistake? Go headlong into them without any research. Action is important, but the phrase “knowledge is power” is around for a reason. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can make some of the classic mistakes such as not knowing how to handle any of the taxes, not understanding what limitations each account might have, and not understanding the limitations on the account types. Doing your research might not be fun—in fact, at times, it might feel like homework—but you’d be amazed at how quickly it can change your disposition from “confused” to “knowledgeable.” Be the latter.

#2: Give yourself a plan.

Dwight D. Eisenhower one said that plans weren’t that important, but that planning is everything. The reason he said that is because planning gives you the preparation and knowledge to deal with uncertainties in life. The truth is, no one knows how their investments are going to end up. That’s just a fact of life, and it’s part of the risk you take by engaging in investing at all. But if you enter the arena with at least a plan, then you can use that plan to gauge just how well you’re doing. If your plan isn’t working, you’ll know which parts to adjust and you can move on from there.

If you don’t plan at all, then you’ll often succumb to the whims and winds of the market. You might not know how to adjust if you’ve never put any thought into the construction of your portfolio at all. Plans might not always hold up, but remember what Eisenhower said: planning is everything.

#3: Make specific goals.

One of the fastest ways to ensure that you never get where you’re going is to never have a specific goal driving you there. Consider driving across the country using GPS. You wouldn’t tell your GPS to head “east,” would you? No, you’d give your GPS a specific location and then work on the steps that lead up to that specific location.

Specific goals often work the way with Self Directed IRAs. Just give yourself one thing to accomplish every month, even if it seems like a simple goal at the time. You’ll be amazed at how quickly these goals add up. But keep an over-arching “end goal” that’s specific; this allows you to adjust your investment strategy as necessary because you’ll have more measurable results to work from.

If you’re interested in adding a Self-Directed IRA to your portfolio, keep reading our articles and guides here at AmericanIRA.com to give yourself a solid footing from which to research. You can also contact us at 828-257-4949 if you’re still confused about some issues. Remember: knowledge is power. If you want to avoid mistakes with Self Directed IRAs, you’re going to have to know what those common mistakes are. And with knowing comes better action and better results.

What does it take to give yourself a retirement that can make you feel happy and free? What does it take to create a retirement plan that will have you feeling happy and free even while your wealth grows? We have a few ideas. In fact, we have many. But at the core? Self Directed IRAs. Being able to take hold of your financial destiny and decide what your portfolio will look like is an important step in the journey to self-directed financial independence.

But just because you take control over your finances doesn’t mean that you should do away with any solid advice when it comes to retirement. That’s why you’ll see so many articles on places like AmericanIRA.com helping you along the way. The wise investor knows what they know and what they don’t know—and they plan accordingly. If you need a little bit of a nudge in the right direction, keep reading:

Step #1: Picking the best investments for your Self Directed IRAs.

This is a simple but critical step. You don’t want to pick out investments just because they “sound” like a good idea. You don’t want to pick out investments just because you’ll get diversification through them. You want to pick your investments based on what you know—the kinds of experiences you’ve had in life, for example. Someone who has a lot of history with real estate will be more likely to invest in real estate through a Self-Directed IRA, for example.

There are lots of options here, as you can see at our investment options page. In fact, there are probably more options than you counted on. So give these a broad look and ask yourself what your retirement goals really are before you pick the kinds of investments that will work best for you.

Step #2: Picking the kind of IRA account that works best for your situation.

Self Directed IRAs work like other IRAs, which means that Roth IRAs, traditional IRAs, etc. are all available for self-direction. You’ll want to pick the best one for your situation first. Look at our Types of Self Directed IRAs accounts first to get acquainted with your options.

Step #3: Establishing a Self-Directed IRA.

It should go without saying that you can’t get started taking control of your finances through Self-Direction unless you actually open up a Self-Directed IRA account. Our open account forms are simple and easy to use, but a word of warning: know what you’re getting into first. If this is the first time you’ve heard of a Self-Directed IRA, do plenty of research so you can be sure that this is the right decision for you.

Step #4: Fund your account.

Your account doesn’t get moving until you do, which is a fancy way of saying that nothing happens with investments until you actually make an investment. Like most IRAs, there are different options for funding your Self-Directed IRA, so make sure you know them before you start. Read our eBook to get a handle on these different funding types.

Step #5: Never stop researching.

Finally, it’s important to remember that knowledge is indeed power, especially when it comes to your investments. Knowing your investments, knowing your accounts, and knowing your options can all add up to a positive financial impact on your retirement. That’s why it’s important to learn them now—so your retirement investments can pay off in the long run. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us at 828-257-4949 to find out about Self Directed IRAs. We’ll be glad to talk to you!

When people research Self Directed IRAs, they start to get the sense that it’s completely at odds with conventional wisdom about investing.

But does this really hold up when you do the research, or is it a false choice? If you ask us, there are many different ways of looking at Self Directed IRAs:

Conventional Wisdom: “Keep most of your money in the stock market—over the long haul, it gives you the best returns.”

Self Directed IRAs: “Diversify.”

There are few people who are going to quarrel with the conventional wisdom on this one. The reason the stock market is so popular is because it is one of the best ways for people to get returns. After all, what you see on the public stock market is a swatch of companies that are run by some of the best businesspeople in the world. It’s no wonder that over the long haul, stocks tend to do well and create a stellar rate of return.

But is that all you need to know about investing?

The philosophy of those with Self Directed IRAs says that there’s more to investing for retirement than just diversifying a stock portfolio and waiting until retirement. It says that there’s more out there than just one market, and that placing your eggs in one basket—no matter how great the basket—is not a good idea.

These two concepts can live in harmony. It’s possible to have a lot of money in the market as well as a lot of money on your own, with Self Directed IRAs to protect your other investment stores like real estate.

Conventional Wisdom: “Defer to the advice of the experts.”

Self Directed IRAs: “Listen to yourself as well.”

When you know every little about investing, it’s tempting to defer all of the decisions to someone else. You open an account and listen to a financial planner tell you where your assets should go. You go to a bank and get their recommendations on which kinds of accounts to build up. You go online and ask people to tell you what to do.

And that’s fine. There’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t listen to experts in order to give yourself a more well-rounded view of what’s available out there.

But that doesn’t mean the ultimate decision should ever be out of your hands. It’s your money, after all—you should be free to decide what to do with it.

That means arming yourself with investment knowledge. Use the experts’ opinions as one source of that knowledge, but keep exploring other ideas as well. Challenge yourself. Think about what really works in the real world, and remember that you might have investment experience in an area like real estate that can be unlocked when you open a Self-Directed IRA. It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation.

If you want to know more about the Self Directed IRAs you’ve heard about here, continue reading AmericanIRA.com and check out many of our posts and guides about this very subject. You can also call us at 828-257-4949 to learn more about Self Directed IRAs. A fresh perspective is always good to help you learn more about the world of retirement investing.

When people say that they’re diversifying their assets, they don’t go into details. But some people—and these people are often known as “goldbugs”—are all too happy to tell you about their strategy: they use a Self Directed IRA to purchase gold or silver.

If you’re unfamiliar with the process, let’s take a look at investing in precious metals and see what it really means to diversify with a Self Directed IRA:

Self Directed IRA: Meet the Precious Metals

If you want to know your precious metals, you’re first going to have to learn exactly what they are. And that means knowing the individual metals themselves. Here are a few quick things you can learn about these precious metals and what separates them from each other:

Gold: Gold is renowned throughout history as one of the most common forms of money. There’s a reason for that. Gold is malleable, which means it can be separated and shaped easily, but it’s also resistant to rust, which means that it doesn’t lose its value over time. Gold is expensive these days, often over 4 digits per “troy ounce,” and generally easy to store because of this high value-to-weigh ratio.

Silver: Silver is immensely valuable as well, though compared to gold, it’s an inexpensive option. With current silver prices at some $14 per troy ounce, silver can be a bit of a “beginner investment” for anyone looking to hold a substantial amount of physical precious metal bullion. Silver is highly durable like gold and even has uses in medication and healing thanks to its antibacterial properties. Perhaps that’s why silverware is so popular.

Other metals include platinum and palladium, though gold and silver are traditionally the main investments that “goldbugs” seek out in order to diversify their portfolio.

Precious Metal Diversification: How Does It Work?

Perhaps you’ve read about “hedging against inflation” with gold and silver and you’re not sure how that process works. The truth is, hedging against inflation isn’t as simple as buying gold and silver and calling it a day; many of the numbers do not support a direct relationship between inflation and the value of gold.

When it comes to investing in precious metal bullion, you’ll want to think of gold and silver as a physical holding of monetary value. It’s like moving your dollars out of the dollar and into a tangible investment that you can hold. Sure, you can hope that the value of your gold and silver will go up against the dollar so that you can sell your investments for more than you paid, but for many people, the inherent value of gold and silver is that they are a different type of value in your portfolio—a value that stands very little chance of degrading over time because of the quality of these metals themselves.

Many goldbugs like to point out that you can take your gold and silver, get in a time machine, and still have wealth with you because gold and silver have been so consistently valued over the years. That’s one reason why many people think gold and silver are a great way to hold value even at points of economic crisis. It’s no guarantee of short-term results, but many goldbugs tend to think long-term when it comes to these investments.

If you want more information about precious metal investing through a Self Directed IRA, be sure to visit our section on precious metals. You can also call us at 828-257-4949 to learn more about what it means to invest through a Self Directed IRA.

Want to do more with your money than the traditional 9-to-5 office worker does? Then you’re going to need to expand your definition of financial security to include the term Self Directed IRA.

Specifically, you’re going to have to learn how to diversify your assets so you don’t feel like you’re holding on to any one industry. And if you’re smart and do your research, you’ll find a lot of advantages to Self Directed IRAs along the way. Here are some of the not-so-secret “secrets” out there:

Secret #1: A Self Directed IRA Protects Your Assets.

If you’re ever curious about how “risky” a Self Directed IRA really is, consider that these are still retirement accounts. Retirement accounts are among the most protected financial accounts you can have, which is why so many experts recommend them for building long-term wealth.

One example: the Real Estate Self Directed IRA. In investing in real estate through a Self Directed IRA, you’re able to use non-recourse loans in order to use leverage. A non-recourse loan is a loan in which the lender can’t come after you or your assets if you default on the loan; instead, they can only come for the capital invested in itself. This means that your net worth is protected against total disaster, which lowers the overall risk associated with investing in real estate. This is the kind of protection that people who really know how to diversify will utilize to its full extent in order to maximize their financial security.

Secret #2: Options. Lots of options.

Maybe it’s not such a “secret,” but if you asked anyone about the concept of an IRA they probably wouldn’t even know what “Self-Directed” means, let alone that it was possible. The truth is, you get access to a lot of options when utilizing this kind of IRA. There are so many options in fact that the regulations tend to point out which investments you cannot make with these accounts.

After all, take a look at all of the options at our investment options page and you’ll start to get an idea of just how flexible an IRA can really be. Everything from real estate to private companies and joint ventures are possibilities when you direct your own IRA. That’s the kind of flexibility most people just don’t know about, which is what makes it a “secret” of someone who holds a diversified account.

Secret #3: Private loans.

Okay, now we’re really stretching the definition of the term “secret,” because this is a legitimate way to grow capital under a Self Directed IRA. In fact, it’s how banks get their money: loans. If you know how to sniff out a winner, a private loan can provide some of the best passive income there is. This means that your retirement savings can grow even after you’ve already made the decision to invest in a private loan, giving you plenty of options for focusing your attention and your energy elsewhere. True, there is inherent risk with loans—just as there is with any sort of investment.

If these kinds of “secrets” (which really aren’t so secret) appeal to you, then you’ll want to continue reading up on the concept of the Self Directed IRA and learn what it can do for you in order to achieve more diversification in your portfolio. Keep reading our blog posts here at AmericanIRA.com, explore our guides and downloads, and remember that you can always call us at 828-257-4949 if you want to learn more about what it takes to Self-Direct a retirement account for greater financial security and peace of mind.

What can a Self Directed IRA do for you?

It’s an important question, but you’d be surprised at how many people actually know the answer. It’s fewer than you think. For most people, the idea of investing is as simple as buying stocks. But there are more options available to you out there if you want to learn them—and there are more advantages you can use when you realize all of the different account types, as well. In order to expand your concept of retirement investing, we put together a brief list that we believe most beginning investors need to consider:

#1. A Self Directed IRA can add financial security.

If you’re already familiar with the concepts of a Roth IRA, traditional IRAs, and more, then you know all about the protections that come with the usual retirement accounts. Self Directed IRA accounts are no different. In fact, you’ll find that they come with some benefits as soon as you start utilizing their flexibility for maximum impact.

One of the most important areas in which you can do this is through non-recourse loans when investing in real estate. Non-recourse loans are loans in which a lender can’t come after your other assets should you default on a loan…they can only come after the value of the loan itself. That means that if you invest in real estate with a non-recourse loan through a Self Directed IRA, many of your assets remain protected. And you still get to use leverage in order to build equity over time!

#2: The flexibility to choose from an exhaustive list of options.

When most people think about retirement—and let’s be honest here—they think about their work 401(k). This is especially true the younger you are. The younger you are, the further off retirement seems, which makes it seem less valuable to start investing in your future. And people get stuck in this bubble, never really looking at all of their options until it’s too late.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Take a look at all of the Self Directed IRA investment options available to you today. All you have to do is review a few of them to expand your concept of what it means to invest in real estate. Simply browsing through these allows you to see all of the different avenues you have available to you. There are more retirement accounts than a 401(k), and there are more assets than just stocks.

#3: Achieving diversification of asset classes.

Most people take “diversification” to mean choosing a variety of stocks. But if you really want to diversify, you’ll have to learn this concept asset classes, which really refers to the different types of investments you make. When you learn the asset classes—real estate, private company shares, etc.—you see a greater degree of what’s available to you.

Diversification means looking at alternative options like precious metals, for example, and making a decision to make your investments not only larger, but more broad. Casting a wider net generally means you’ll stand a greater chance of catching more fish—and in the case of hardship, you’ll have different asset classes to “fall back on” as well.

If you’re interested in learning more about how a Self Directed IRA works, be sure to continue reading our articles here at AmericanIRA.com. We cover a range of topics in our menu options above, acting as a “guide” to the world of Self Directed IRAs. And if after all that, you’re still stuck, you can contact us directly by calling 828-257-4949 and letting us know what you need to know.

There are a lot of quotes out there. But not all of them apply to taking the reins over your own financial destiny as some people do with a Self Directed IRA.

Fortunately, we sifted through a lot of the wisdom and found some of the most relevant quotes when it comes to investing and Self Directed IRA investing with yourself as the captain in charge of where your financial boat goes. Here are some of our favorite words of wisdom that relate to investing, money, and, of course, controlling your own destiny:

“To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.”

-Benjamin Graham, the Intelligent Investor

Why is this such an important quote? Because it shows you just how common it can be to achieve “satisfactory” investment results—and, after all, isn’t that all we really want? Sure, some of us might pursue even bigger gains, but if you end up happy with your investments, then that means you were probably successful to one degree or another. And as Benjamin Graham notes, it’s more than possible to become a successful investor even if you’re not an expert. You don’t have to be afraid of the markets out there—you simply have to know a few time-tested strategies of diversification and thinking long-term.

Okay, maybe we don’t agree with everything the controversial financial mind has to say, but it’s not too wacky to consider that a portfolio consisting only of mutual funds isn’t always going to do as well as you think. If you happen to need your money during a bear market, you’re out of luck. If you happen to invest just as the market turns, you’re out of luck. Diversification out of funds and out of stocks is important if you want a wider net. This doesn’t have to mean that you get out of funds and stocks entirely, of course. But you should think about what a “wide net” means to you.

The real estate mogul clearly has a passion for real estate, and why not? The reasons he gives make sense. Real estate is a tangible investment that you can see and touch. It’s the kind of investment that never goes out of style, because everyone always needs a place to live and a place to do business. With a Self Directed IRA, investing in real estate is easy…in fact, there are ways to use leverage to invest in real estate for retirement if you know the proper rules.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

-Benjamin Franklin

Knowledge truly is power, especially when it comes to money. Knowing your options is key. One of the best things we love about self-directing an IRA is that it helps people understand what goes on in their portfolio. It forces them to consider their goals, their ideals, their principles, and it forces them to create a portfolio on their own. It helps people educate themselves about all of the investment types that are out there. And that’s why we work so hard to include our Self Directed IRA Investment Knowledge Center. There’s plenty of knowledge there—and knowledge is the best investment—which will help you along your journey to retirement and financial independence. And if you’re interested in learning more, you can continue to browse AmericanIRA.com or simply call us at 1-866-7500-IRA(472) to get in touch.